Season 2 episode "Cardassians"

I am rewatching DS9 right now. I just finished the season 2 episode called "Cardassians" that centers around a young cardassian boy who was abandoned when the Cardassians left Bajor and was raised by a Bajoran family. A custody battle ensues when the boy's Cardassian biological father arrives at the station wanting his son back but the boy's Bajoran adopted father refuses to give him up.

I have to say this episode really illustrates one of DS9's strengths. The episode deals with so many thorny issues like prejudice, identity, adoption, war orphans and custody battles. But it is not preachy. And it deals with these issues in a very deep way. The episode has so many layers. Not just does it deal with all these deep issues but it also weaves in cardassian politics as we learn the truth behind the boy's adoption and how Gul Dukat tried to use the situation to advance his political ambitions.

The scenes with the boy in O'Brien's quarters are great. The dinner table scene is great as we see both the boy and O'Brien push away the cardassian food because of their distaste for Cardassians. But the scene later where O'Brien and the boy talk alone is fantastic.

Also shout out to Garak who is such a great supporting character. He really shines in this episode as he and Bashir investigate the circumstances behind the boy's adoption. He is secretive, coy, but intelligent and manipulative. And Garak and Bashir make a great duo.

 

Cardassians are such a strange culture, with odd contradictions. As Lwaxana Troi said, a Cardassian might weep at the death of his child's pet wompet one moment, and cut down an enemy without blinking the next.

 

While not on as grand a scale as "In the Pale Moonlight" or "For the Uniform", I feel this is another episode where Sisko makes a decision that invites scrutiny as well. At the same time, I have no idea what the best decision he could have made would have been, especially in light of events that would follow.

But for those who enjoy this episode, the novel, "The Never-Ending Sacrifice" is a must-read.

 

Yeah, the episode kinda drops Sisko's decision at the end, almost matter of fact. I don't think we even hear Sisko's reasons for his decision. But it was a tough decision that definitely invites scrutiny. On one hand, it would stand to reason that the biological father would have custody rights. But clearly, the boy will not be happy with his biological father as he hates all things Cardassian. So sending him to live on Cardassia is forcing the boy to live a life he will hate. And we don't see the consequences. I guess the Bajoran father had to accept it begrudgingly. And we see the boy go with his Cardassian father into the docking port without saying a word, but with body language that indicates he too is not happy.

 

There's a valid argument that Sisko felt that the boy needed to learn not to hate Cardassians (and indirectly himself) and would never really have that opportunity if he grew up among Bajorans traumatized by the Occupation.

Before Dukat sold out Cardassia to the Dominion, there may have even been some options for "joint custody" of Rugal.

At the same time, taking Rugal away from everything he grew up with, whether or not it was on any level toxic, is obviously problematic as well.

Much like "Tuvix", an episode with no clear 'best' resolution.

 

Well said. And as is the case with Janeway and Tuvix, I think Sisko's decision was the wrong one.

 

Considering this was not a matter of custody in divorce, but a matter related to how the child ended up in the hands of different adults, I don't think that Rugal's wishes would have as much impact. Moreover, no one, including Rugal, had anything to say about what kind of household Pa'Dar ran. Simply put, there is that can negatively weigh against returning him to Cardassia.

 

Tuvix had a very clear solution: replace two boring characters with a much more interesting character.

 

Custody battles are always problematic. I remember the "Baby Jessica" affair. The girl's birthmother out and out lied about who the father was... and was effectively rewarded for doing so.

This was about removing a 12 year old kid from the world he had grown up in, and immersing him in a culture he had grown to hate. You can't tell me that's not going to leave some scars.

 

I stand corrected!

 

My parents divorced when I was 5 years old and I went through a bad custody battle that deeply affected my entire life. Custody battles are rough.

 

If parents knew/remembered what going through a divorce was like, they would think very hard before getting married (to ensure that this was a person they could go the distance with). And even harder before getting divorced.

One of the bright spots in knowing that I will never marry is knowing that I will never divorce.

 

So, just like us?

P.S. What is that dialogue from? I don't recall it.

 

It's from an old Star Trek book. The Vacationers Guide to the Planets of Star Trek or some such thing. I think it's by Lwaxana, but she may have just "written" the introduction.

 

Sisko didn't explain his reasoning, but I think Rugal is more likely going to come to realize that not everything Cardassian is bad living with his father on Cardassia than he would come to not hate himself living on Bajor being a Cardassian where pretty much everyone hates everything Cardassian.

 

For anyone interested in what may have happened to Rugal (depending on your stance regarding tie-in fiction), I can't recommend The Never-Ending Sacrifice highly enough.

Edit: Oops, already recommended by DonIago. But it's a motion worth being seconded.

 

It's interesting to contrast Sisko's decision with Picard's in TNG's "Suddenly Human". In both cases the exigencies of war cause a child to be raised by the enemies of his race and the Captain has to decide if the child should stay with his adoptive parents or be returned to his birth family. Picard actually makes the opposite choice and allows the human boy to remain with his Talarian father.

I'm not sure either decision really makes sense especially since both cases are presented as all-or-nothing propositions when there's no reason why there couldn't have been shared custody arrangements. That's especially true with Rugal, since Cardassia and Bajor are so close and there was so much ongoing contact between the two.

 

Mary Chieffo mentioned this episode recently. She really liked it.

"I think I'm in season two and now I don't remember the name of the episode but it's the Cardassian boy who was left behind and raised by Bajorans, and how he has complete and utter self-loathing. He hates Cardassians even though he is one. I was watching it last night, and that conflict, that's what Trek can illuminate so clearly and beautifully. By putting it in an alien realm, we're able to see these archetypes so clearly and recognize, ‘Hey, how, how sad that this kid completely hates his genetic makeup and heritage and own species, due to the fact that that's how he was raised.’ And it's also — talk about duality, how he can hold those two mentalities simultaneously to recognize that he is a Cardassian, but to also completely hate Cardassians. That's such an interesting exploration of a conflict that unfortunately I think a lot of people struggle with. "

https://intl.startrek.com/news/talk...d-more-with-mary-chieffo-and-steffi-hochriegl

 

Yes...

Rugal is surrounded by Bajorans, who I guess in many cases were bigots towards him and he is in school learning and seeing all the horrible scars his fellow Cardassians left on the Bajorans. I bet while he was living on Bajor he developed something similar to Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: PTSS...

Here is a link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_Traumatic_Slave_Syndrome

Or maybe Rugal had develop a form of Stockholm syndrome living on Bajor...

 

Or maybe he was simply an orphan boy raised by loving parents who never held back from telling him the truth about the Occupation from the Bajoran point of view. His parents may have had an anti-Cardassian bias, but who wouldn't under the circumstances?